In the medical domain there are several well-known and widely-used systems;
in the case of the Hypermedata project, the medical information systems were
PCS*CARE and AMIS*H, locally-produced systems from PCS and AMIS
respectively. With introducing these and other systems into healthcare centres there appears
a need for exchange of medical records in some generally compatible form.

The medical record is a complex information consisting of textual information, images including
X-ray photographs, tables of analytical results from instruments, dates of
consultations, prescriptions or treatments, relative time expressions, and
clinical as well as non-clinical terms used with varying degrees of precision,
certainty and completeness.

The requirement for interoperation by data exchange
between medical information systems - preserving the systems autonomy and
aiming at the best interests of patient care - is directly linked to the need for user-comfortable
presentation of the exchanged information; because of the
complexity of medical data, the best presentation form is hyperlinked multimedia.

Project Objectives and Parameters

The major aim of the project was to provide informatic tools for the SMEs to
increase their mutual communication possibilities, thus utilising their provision to
the healthcare application area. The
many end-user/customer requirements can be condensed to two main
problems:

1. 
   the integration of information from heterogeneous distributed sources;
   
2. 
   its presentation to the end-user (both for output and input) through a hyperlinked multimedia document.
   

The technical aim of the project was to develop tools to solve these
problems, using standards in both the distributed database and
hyperdocument areas.

The overall workprogramme consisted of three major Work Packages, each
overlapping the next to ensure that there was suitable interaction between
design derived from requirements with development based on design and in
turn with evaluation by end-users:

1. 
   user requirements analysis, data and process modelling, HYPERMEDATA system design (1995-1996, the Work Package was documented by User Requirements Report and finalised by draft specification of data/process models and specification of HYPERMEDATA system architecture);
   
2. 
   system development (1996-1997, the Work Programme contained development of a prototype system and final tools and was finalised by full specification of data/process models);
   
3. 
   evaluating and generalisation of the system (1996-1998, the Work Package was closed by final reports on developed tools, their utilisation in healthcare and their general usability).
   

MU-ICS Role

1. 
   project coordination in CZ/SK;
   
2. 
   theoretical background (with RAL);
   
3. 
   implementation (with AMIS, IRM, and ELAS).
   

Other Applications

The technology of hyperlinked multimedia data exchange
developed within Hypermedata is also applicable to domains other than that of
medicine and the resulting tools are generally usable.

Publications